Let It Be Me
by smoakincodebreaker
Summary: Warning: Major Character Death! How does Team Arrow handle it? Set at just before Season 3 started. Mention of Arrow season 2 and 2.5
1. Chapter 1: Felicity

It had all gotten to be too much. The only place she had ever begun to call home was beginning to feel like the only place she didn't belong anymore. With Laurel training, Oliver working on getting the company back, and Diggle constantly worrying about Lyla, Felicity was feeling less and less like a part of Team Arrow. They all had their own worries, their own things to fight for, and when she began to reevaluate her life she was finding that she wasn't sure what it was she was fighting for.

The worst part of all of this?

It took dying to figure it out.

The new Count, the one who was going around with a new strand of Vertigo had found her. Apparently she had been written down in some stupid book that the first one kept. What was with these damn books, anyway? One started all of this, suppose it only made sense to end with one. The double dose of the drug had coursed through her veins quickly, too quickly. Honestly, she hadn't even felt the effects of the drug, all she knew was that she was definitely dying.

As the tears fell down her cheeks a barely audible laugh left her lips. Fitting how alone she was feeling lately that she die all alone. Hopefully Sara would take her dog when she came home, she had always loved Ophelia. Maybe Roy could take her apartment. He had practically been living there in an attempt to get away from Thea's memory at his place. Diggle would probably take that photo from her wall of the two of them. He had always been like the brother she never had. They were acting like complete goofballs in the photo, which was why it was both of their favorites. Carefree moments were extremely rare working with Team Arrow. Probably because Oliver was so broody.

Oliver…

Even though he was a giant pain in her ass, she would miss him the most. Ever since the whole "I love you" disaster, things have been strained. She was never good at admitting her feelings, too many people have left scars on her heart, but she knew that she loved him. Her death would probably affect him the most. There was no doubt in her mind that he would blame himself for this, no matter how much it was obviously hers.

Why did she always put herself in these positions? Sometimes her bravery was her biggest downfall. "And what was that horrible screaming sound?" She mused before realizing it was her. Was she really in that much pain? Why couldn't she actually tell? Her inner dialogue has never hindered her pain before. It just had to be the drug.

Snapping her mouth shut, and concentrating as best she could, she pulled her phone from her front coat pocket. Texting was difficult, the buttons blurred together and for a moment she wondered if she had lost her glasses. Thanks to autocorrect, something she never thought she would think or say, she managed to get a text to Oliver. Fear didn't stop her this time as she told him where she was, and that he would be too late but she loved him. Always had. And as a near after though, she threw in the pass code for phone so that he could get hers moms phone number.

The last thing she remembered before the complete blackness was the feel of Oliver's hand on her cheek, and the very faint sounds of his pleading for her to stay with him. It almost sounded like his exchange with Tommy, she thought before she grew too weak to stay conscious anymore.


	2. Chapter 2: Oliver

Buzz… Buzz…

That was the sound of his world ending.

Sparring with Digg was interrupted by the text sound. Usually he'd keep going but Felicity hadn't shown up to the foundry yet and he was starting to worry. After what happened with Blood a few months after what happened with Slade he was uneasy when she wasn't in his sight. It was a ludicrous way of being but it was what it was.

As he opened the message from Felicity there was a sinking feeling in his chest. Normally she called. Normally she wasn't late. Normally he didn't feel so sick at the thought of reading words on his phone. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. And when his mind registered the words that were on his phone the breath rushed out of him.

"Oliver... I know this is the worst way to tell you this but I love you too. I love you so much. I'm sorry my timing is the worst. You're gonna be too late. The Count found me, revenge for what happened to the old one. It was a double dose. My phone is telling me I'm at 138 W Homer St. I'm not going to make it but this is my fault. Not yours. I love you. And the passcode on my phone is the date we met. Tell mom I love her."

It felt like someone had ripped his chest apart and threw his heart onto the ground. He'd endured so many forms of torture in his time away, and even since he'd come home but this… this was the worst kind of pain he'd ever experienced. Despite it all he was determined to make Felicity wrong for once in her life. He wouldn't be too late. He couldn't. Not when he hadn't told her yet that he loved her in circumstances that wasn't a ruse. The way she phrased it hinted to the fact that she knew it was real but there couldn't be a doubt. She had to know.

He was moving before Digg had even gotten a chance to finish his question. There was no time to fill him in. There was no time to put on his suit. He just grabbed a t-shirt, his quiver, and his bow. When he turned to face Digg it was as if they had a silent conversation. The older man was in action in the blink of an eye. Shirt on, gun tucked in his pants, and keys in hand they ran up the stairs to the foundry door. The warm summer night air hit them like a brick wall as Oliver held his hand out impatiently for the keys. Digg dropped them in his hand before taking Oliver's phone to read the text.

The trip to W Homer Street took all of two minutes. They were only a couple of blocks away and for some lucky reason traffic was at a minimum. The door was flung open before he even got to a complete stop. Not to mention how bad for the transmission it was the way he threw the car into park. It didn't matter though. All that mattered was getting to Felicity in time.

Her screaming was why he found her. She was on the cold, hard ground in a heap. The puncture marks on her neck fueled the rage that was boiling under the surface. He would make it his life mission to find this man and kill him as slowly as humanly possible. And that was only his plan if she survived. If he lost her, there would be more than just hell to pay. People would be wishing for hell when he got through with them. Her whimper of pain pulled him from that rage and brought him back. She always brought him back.

Dropping to his knees he looked over her once more. She was a mess. A beautiful mess. Felicity Smoak couldn't be anything but beautiful, no matter what. It broke his heart when he realized she didn't even notice his presences. In an instances his hands were on her cheeks, pulling her up off the ground. "Felicity," his voice was thick and raspy. He wasn't ashamed of the tears that quickly cascaded down his cheeks. He was a broken man but seeing this strong, unwavering woman like this shattered him to pieces. "You have to stay with me."

She didn't listen. Her eyes slid shut behind her glasses and he couldn't help the sob that tore through his chest. "It should have been me!" The words he used when Tommy died echoed through the empty warehouse, this time with even more conviction. He was the one who had fired those three arrows into the chest of the original Count Vertigo. That dose should have been plunged into his neck. Not hers. This wasn't the way she was supposed to go.

His head rested on her chest as he cried. How long? He had no idea. Digg had leaned in over him, his fingers pressing to her neck for a pulse but the beating of her heart had stopped. He couldn't hear it anymore, or feel it. Oliver really just suspected that Digg needed to check for himself.

"We gotta call Lance," John finally spoke, his voice thicker and deeper than usual. Oliver didn't have to look up to know he was crying too.

"I love you, Felicity" was all he could keep saying. The older man had to pull him from her body. He had already called Captain Lance, who had arrived at some point that he hadn't noticed. Crime scene investigators canvases the area, searching everything as the coroner started prodding at Felicity. A pang of protectiveness shot through him and John had to fight to hold him back.

Questions were asked and answered all night long, at the scene, and at the station. It was a long night, most of which he blocked out. By the time he'd been dragged back into the lair by his best friend and body guard the sun was coming up. Her computers buzzing and he knew that she would kick his ass for letting them stay on all night long.

Everything was just so much darker now. It was as if the sun had been snuffed out. His sun was anyways. Unable to bare the thoughts that plagued him anymore he rose from the chair he'd been sitting in and crossed the distance to the computers. Methodically he shut them down, just the way she would have. The little post-it note that was stuck to the edge of her monitor caught his eye though. In her lively hand writing read the words "Team Arrow". Sinking into her plush black computer chair all he could think was that they weren't "Team Arrow" anymore. Not without her.


	3. Chapter 3: John

div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Sometimes begin a soldier was a blessing. His training in the military had taught him how to shut his emotions off to deal with at a later date when they lost a comrade. Tonight was no different. Except for the fact that Felicity had become more the little sister he never had compared to a comrade. A few tears managed to escape his tough guy exterior before he pulled himself together. It was more for Oliver's sake than his own. Losing Felicity had always been the younger mans biggest fear. Now, it was being played out right in front of him. Right in his arms./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Captain Lance even showed up with a heavy heart and tears in his eyes. When the officer started helping Team Arrow it was abundantly clear that Felicity was really the only one he trusted. As time ticked on he warmed up to the rest of them but John didn't miss the unlikely bond the two shared. Often times he wondered if Lance saw her as the third daughter he never had. Felicity just had a way of wiggling into hearts like that./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Throughout the interviews and the drive back to the foundry John said nothing. What could he say? Oliver wasn't the only one who lost someone that night. As much as the archer was hurting, the soldier was hurting just as much. Protecting Felicity was a vow that they both agreed upon a long time ago. In fact, Oliver insisting that they could keep her safe was the only reason Diggle ever agreed to let her join the mission. The bitterness that was starting to settle in his chest was being directed at Oliver, despite knowing it shouldn't be./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"After getting Oliver inside safely and leaving him to his own devices, Diggle headed out under the pretense of going home. Lyla would be there and be comforting as ever but that wasn't what he needed. His soldier instinct had kicked into overdrive. The only way to handle his emotions now was to dive into work. At the moment, that work was to figure out how the Count found Felicity, as her text implied. His first stop was her house because something told him that Felicity had gotten herself into trouble rather than it having found her./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"As suspected there was no signs of forced entry. Or entry at all for that matter. The small town house was in perfect order, right down to the tablet set perfectly atop her mountain of magazines on her coffee table. A tap of a button and the screen came to life, rolling notifications telling him just how many searches she had been running. The most recent ones were what caught his eye though. It appeared that since getting news of the new Count she had set up any form of search and notification for him. He knew the last one and her history, so he understood her wanting to keep an eye on the situation. But, he also knew Felicity Smoak well enough to know she hated mysteries./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Once he got the device unlocked it all clicked into place. Trouble hadn't found her because she was the one who found the trouble. Displayed on the screen was a picture and location of the man. West Homer Street traffic camera picked him up, and of course Felicity would go on her own. Irrational anger pulsed through John's veins as he roughly put the tablet back on the stack of magazines. A flicker of regret sparked in his stomach when he wasn't immediately ostracized for his neglecting ways with her precious baby. That flicker was gone as quickly as it came though./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"How dare she! All he ever heard her say was how she couldn't lose someone so important to her again after her father left. All he ever promised her was that he would make sure him and Oliver always made it back at night. Now here he was, the one in pain of losing someone so incredibly important to him. This was like Andy all over again, just worse in someways. Sure anger had been a huge part of his grief with Andy but he always directed that at Deadshot. This… this was different. Yes the new Count was to blame for killing her but Felicity was to blame for seeking trouble. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"At some point the large man had risen from her purple couch and had begun to pace her small space. The anger coursing through his veins refused to allow him to be immobile. That was how he spotted it. Stopping dead in his tracks his eyes focused on the small framed photo, placed strategically close to the Robin Hood poster. It was him, and her, laughing hysterically in Big Belly Burger. He remembered it like it was yesterday. Oliver had said something stupid, didn't get a pop culture reference over milkshakes. He couldn't remember what it was but he remembered how good it felt to laugh. It was one of the early days./div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 14px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Without second thought he grabbed the picture, shut off all her lights, took one last look around and pulled the door shut behind him. The lock latched immediately and with a faint peace of mind he headed home to cry on his ex-wife's shoulder. Lyla was as comforting as he knew she would be as he clutched the photo in his hands, eyes never lifting from the free-spirited blondes face. There was never going to be a "Team Arrow" after tonight. Not without her./div 


End file.
